Worm: The First Digital World War

Worm: The First Digital World War tells the story of the Conficker worm, a potentially devastating piece of malware that has baffled experts and infected more than twelve million computers worldwide. When Conficker was unleashed in November 2008, cybersecurity experts did not know what to make of it. Exploiting security flaws in Microsoft Windows, it grew at an astonishingly rapid rate, infecting millions of computers around the world within weeks.

Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground

The word spread through the hacking underground like some unstoppable new virus: Someone - some brilliant, audacious crook - had just staged a hostile takeover of an online criminal network that siphoned billions of dollars from the U.S. economy. The FBI rushed to launch an ambitious undercover operation aimed at tracking down this new kingpin. Other agencies around the world deployed dozens of moles and double agents.

We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency

In late 2010, thousands of hacktivists joined a mass digital assault by Anonymous on the websites of VISA, MasterCard, and PayPal to protest their treatment of WikiLeaks. Splinter groups then infiltrated the networks of totalitarian governments in Libya and Tunisia, and an elite team of six people calling themselves LulzSec attacked the FBI, CIA, and Sony. They were flippant and taunting, grabbed headlines, and amassed more than a quarter of a million Twitter followers.

Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon

Top cybersecurity journalist Kim Zetter tells the story behind the virus that sabotaged Iran’s nuclear efforts and shows how its existence has ushered in a new age of warfare - one in which a digital attack can have the same destructive capability as a megaton bomb.

Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime - from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door

In Spam Nation, investigative journalist and cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs unmasks the criminal masterminds driving some of the biggest spam and hacker operations targeting Americans and their bank accounts. Tracing the rise, fall, and alarming resurrection of the digital mafia behind the two largest spam pharmacies - and countless viruses, phishing, and spyware attacks - he delivers the first definitive narrative of the global spam problem and its threat to consumers everywhere.

@War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex

The United States military currently views cyberspace as the "fifth domain" of warfare - alongside land, sea, air, and space - and the Department of Defense, National Security Agency, and CIA all field teams of hackers who can - and do - launch computer virus strikes against enemy targets. In fact, as @War shows, US hackers were crucial to our victory in Iraq.

CYBERPUNK: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, Revised

Using the exploits of three international hackers, Cyberpunk provides a fascinating tour of a bizarre subculture populated by outlaws who penetrate even the most sensitive computer networks and wreak havoc on the information they find - everything from bank accounts to military secrets. In a book filled with as much adventure as any Ludlum novel, the authors show what motivates these young hackers to access systems, how they learn to break in, and how little can be done to stop them.

Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War

As cyber attacks dominate front-page news, as hackers join the list of global threats, and as top generals warn of a coming cyber war, few books are more timely and enlightening than Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Slate columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Fred Kaplan.

Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It

One of the world's leading authorities on global security, Marc Goodman takes listeners deep into the digital underground to expose the alarming ways criminals, corporations, and even countries are using new and emerging technologies against you - and how this makes everyone more vulnerable than ever imagined.

The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age

The Internet today connects roughly 2.7 billion people around the world, and booming interest in the "Internet of things" could result in 75 billion devices connected to the web by 2020. The myth of cyberspace as a digital utopia has long been put to rest. Governments are increasingly developing smarter ways of asserting their national authority in cyberspace in an effort to control the flow, organization, and ownership of information.

Cyberspies: The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage

As the digital era becomes increasingly pervasive, the intertwining forces of computers and espionage are reshaping the entire world; what was once the preserve of a few intelligence agencies now affects us all. Corera's compelling narrative takes us from the Second World War through the Cold War and the birth of the Internet to the present era of hackers and surveillance. The book is rich with historical detail and characters as well as astonishing revelations about espionage carried out in recent times by the United Kingdom, the United States, and China.

Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It

Richard A. Clarke warned America once before about the havoc terrorism would wreak on our national security-and he was right. Now he warns us of another threat, silent but equally dangerous. Cyber War is a powerful book about technology, government, and military strategy; about criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers.

Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Capture Your Data and Control Your World

In Data and Goliath, Schneier reveals the full extent of surveillance, censorship, and propaganda in society today, examining the risks of cybercrime, cyberterrorism, and cyberwar. He shares technological, legal, and social solutions that can help shape a more equal, private, and secure world. This is an audiobook to which everyone with an Internet connection - or bank account or smart device or car, for that matter - needs to listen.

Darknet: A Beginner's Guide to Staying Anonymous Online

Want to surf the web anonymously? This audiobook is the perfect guide for anyone who wants to cloak their online activities. Whether you're on Usenet, Facebook, P2P, or browsing the web with standard browsers like Opera, Firefox, and Internet Explorer, I will show you how to become a ghost on the internet, leaving no tracks back to your isp, or anyone else.

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution: 25th Anniversary Edition

Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers - those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks, bent the rules, and pushed the world in a radical new direction. With updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, Hackers is a fascinating story that begins in early computer research labs and leads to the first home computers.

DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You

The benefits of living in a digital, globalized society are enormous; so too are the dangers. The world has become a law enforcer’s nightmare and every criminal’s dream. We bank online; shop online; date, learn, work and live online. But have the institutions that keep us safe on the streets learned to protect us in the burgeoning digital world?

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker

Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history. He accessed computers and networks at the world’s biggest companies—and however fast the authorities were, Mitnick was faster, sprinting through phone switches, computer systems, and cellular networks. He spent years skipping through cyberspace, always three steps ahead and labeled unstoppable.

America the Vulnerable: New Technology and the Next Threat to National Security

A former top-level National Security Agency insider goes behind the headlines to explore America's next great battleground: digital security. An urgent wake-up call that identifies our foes; unveils their methods; and charts the dire consequences for government, business, and individuals.

Zero Day: A Jeff Aiken Novel

An airliner’s controls abruptly fail mid-flight over the Atlantic. An oil tanker runs aground in Japan when its navigational system suddenly stops dead. Hospitals everywhere have to abandon their computer databases when patients die after being administered incorrect dosages of their medicine. In the Midwest, a nuclear power plant nearly becomes the next Chernobyl when its cooling systems malfunction. At first, these random computer failures seem like unrelated events.

The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man

It began with a tantalizing, anonymous email: "I am a senior member of the intelligence community." What followed was the most spectacular intelligence breach ever, brought about by one extraordinary man. Edward Snowden was a 29-year-old computer genius working for the National Security Agency when he shocked the world by exposing the near-universal mass surveillance programs of the United States government. His whistleblowing has shaken the leaders of nations worldwide, and generated a passionate public debate on the dangers of global monitoring and the threat to individual privacy.

Rogue Code: A Jeff Aiken Novel

Michael Lewis’ Flash Boys revealed how high-frequency trading has created a ruthless breed of traders capable of winning whichever way the market turns. In Rogue Code, Mark Russinovich takes it one step further to show how their grip on high finance makes the stock market vulnerable to hackers who could bring about worldwide financial collapse.

Tor and the Dark Art of Anonymity: How to Be Invisible from NSA Spying

This manual will give you the incognito tools that'll make you a master of anonymity! Other books tell you to install Tor and then encrypt your hard drive...and leave it at that. I go much deeper, delving into the very engine of ultimate network security, taking it to an art form where you'll grow a new darknet persona - how to be anonymous online without looking like you're trying to be anonymous online.

Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet

Twenty-five years ago, it didn't exist. Today, 20 million people worldwide are surfing the Net. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the exciting story of the pioneers responsible for creating the most talked about, most influential, and most far-reaching communications breakthrough since the invention of the telephone. In the 1960s, when computers where regarded as mere giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communications devices.

Zero Day: The Threat in Cyberspace

For more than a year, Washington Post reporter Robert O'Harrow has explored the threats proliferating in our digital universe. This audiobook is a compilation of that reporting. With chapters built around real people, including hackers, security researchers, and corporate executives, this book will help regular people, lawmakers, and businesses better understand the mind-bending challenge of keeping the Internet safe from hackers and security breaches - and all-out war.

Publisher's Summary

In this disquieting cyber thriller, Joseph Menn takes readers into the murky hacker underground, traveling the globe from San Francisco to Costa Rica and London to Russia. His guides are California surfer and computer whiz Barrett Lyon and a fearless British high-tech agent. Through these heroes, Menn shows the evolution of cyber-crime from small-time thieving to sophisticated, organized gangs, who began by attacking corporate websites but increasingly steal financial data from consumers and defense secrets from governments. Using unprecedented access to Mob businesses and Russian officials, the book reveals how top criminals earned protection from the Russian government.

Fatal System Error penetrates both the Russian cyber-mob and La Cosa Nostra as the two fight over the Internet's massive spoils. The cloak-and-dagger adventure shows why cyber-crime is much worse than you thought and why the Internet might not survive.

What the Critics Say

"Narrator Christian Rummel maintains an upbeat tone, in contrast to the depressing information he delivers. His cheery and enthusiastic attitude makes the mountain of facts more palatable." (AudioFile)

If you think the Internet is secure in any way, shape or form you should probably read this book (non-fiction). This is not about the old school hacking talents of Cap'n Crunch (John Draper), Phiber Optik (Mark Abene), or Condor (Kevin Mitnick) but a syndicated group of virus writers who have gone professional. It is a world wide epidemic of extortion and identity theft, primarily based in Russia and neighboring city states. The US Government has ranked it the largest and most important criminal activity surpassing the drug trade. A few folks have been put in prison but most remain at large and active.

It starts with the history of DDOS extortion attacks (distributed denial-of-service) against gambling and fortune 500 companies i.e. pay us x dollars or we will bring down your website at a critical time - right before the super bowl, a new product launch etc., and migrates to massive online identity and credit card theft. The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.

The links between organized crime and governments, specifically the FSB (the successor of the KGB) and their protection of the hacker networks is outlined in detail.

Audible has a number of excellent books reporting on international criminal activity - drugs, clothing knock-offs, illegal immigation. This book just happens to deal with true crime and the global cyber cartels. This book will appeal to law enforcement personnel, persons interested in criminal justice, and just about anyone who has a concern about cyber crime. It is a well written, informative, and (dare I say) entertaining approach to the problem. The gravity and pervasiveness of the problem will disturb anyone who has not been following such developments. People seeking detailed analysis might be disappointed. Individuals who just want an "inside" account of how things work and what the state of the criminal art looks like will be well rewarded. The reading of Christian Rummel is very good.

This is best book I heard so far for Cyber underground activity.
We are at great risk , we internet users and are at mercy of some criminals.

Bartlett and Andy , you are real heroes.

Great work by Joseph Menn.Great audio quality and great content.
I heard this in one sitting.
Highly recommend if some body wants to do a reality check on Internet.
Not technical and very layman style.

It was difficult for me to follow the story in audio. Actually, didn't complete the udiobook to the end. Many names, places to follow in audio. Maybe it's different in a written book for u to read.

What could Joseph Menn have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

For audio, it's better to have less characters (names, places). To easy follow.

What aspect of Christian Rummel’s performance would you have changed?

The audio was ok.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Just couldn't follow the story, so it was (for me) confusing. I listen to books while driving, so maybe that's why difficult to follow. If u read doing other activities where u can concentrate more on the story maybe u'll find it ok.

I was very disappointed from this audiobook. The author uses every buzz word of the cyber world, but the story line seemed to lack a plot. Once I was done with the book, I was unsatisfied because I was still waiting to find the point of the story. It appeared to me that the author wanted to make a quick buck by just throwing all cyber buzz words into a text file and padding it with names, places, and verbs to "make" it a story.

You don't have to be a computer geek to enjoy this book. It's a cool story that is relevant to everyone because of the broad reach of the internet in our daily lives.

The technical side of it is very light, and helps the non-tech savvy to understand a little more about what is going on when they hear about viruses and such in the news, and the storyline itself is good so everyone should enjoy the read.

The 1st half of the book is focused on Barrett Lyon, and his travails running a cyber security firm. Unfortunately, his partners who were involved with internet gambling, were mob connected.

The book never really explains why Lyon snitched on his partners rather than simply cutting ties to them.

The book would have been better if Barrett Lyon was only a peripheral part of the book, as much of his story didn't have that much to do with cyber crime, but was simply a result of Lyon choosing business partners that he didn't know much about before he got involved with them.

It seems that the author just strung 2 stories together and then marketed the book as one that is purely about cyber crime.

This is an extremely important issue, but the book is somewhat unfocused.